French Senator Nathalie Goulet has sent Hetq the following statement regarding a December 17, 2012 news article we published entitled “Parliament will never pass law criminalizing Armenian Genocide”. 

The Hetq article referred to an Azeri Press Agency (APA) report claiming that Senator Goulet had dismissed any chance that a bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide would pass the French Senate. 

The original APA report reads: “There is no such a bill now. The French Supreme Court doesn’t consider it right to raise this issue again. In general, you must forget this issue, because, the French parliament will never adopt the bill criminalizing the denial of the so-called “Armenian genocide.” 

Senator Goulet  she complained to APA about the incorrect translation and misrepresentation of her words and that the news agency has edited the text to now read: “There is no such a bill now. The French Supreme Court doesn’t consider it right to raise this issue again. In general, you must forget this issue, because, at present, the French parliament has no bill criminalizing the denial of the so-called “Armenian genocide.” 

Senator Goulet also claims that the "so-called" prefix to describe the Genocide was added by the APA and that she never decribed the events of 1915 as such.

Readers will note that the APA has chosen to keep the "so-called" appelation in its edited text.

Below is the unedited statement sent to Hetq by the French Senate’s Parliamentary Office on behalf of Senator Goulet: